The Rebirthday Party
by Trisa Slyne
Summary: Before Carol can figure out what to do about Lizzie, some unexpected "guests" arrive for Mika's Rebirthday Party. Not a fluff. Warning, a tad graphic. AU set at the end of "The Grove."


_Author's Note: I do not own the rights to the Walking Dead. As I was watching, this is something along the lines of how I pictured "The Grove" would end. Obviously it didn't, so this is an AU. _

**The Rebirthday Party **

A gentle wind blew across the field the farmhouse stood in. It rifled through the nearby pecan trees, sending more pecans to the ground, ready to be collected and cooked in whatever way one cooks pecans during the Zombie Apocalypse. The nearby woods waved at the house as the wind blew through it and the water pump creaked slightly, a small drip dropping out as the lever shifted a smidge.

Such iconic scenery had lulled Carol into a false-sense of safety. A sense of… home.

But not anymore.

Carol stared at Lizzie's bloody hands, words and thoughts escaping her. How could she have let this happen?

"Don't worry, she'll come back. I didn't hurt her brain," Lizzie announced with a smile.

Movement from the woods caught Carol's attention before she could formulate a response. She looked up and noted a Walker emerging from the forest. It was still far away enough to be ignored for the moment, but would need to be taken care of shortly. Lizzie followed her gaze and her smile became even wider.

"The first guest has arrived for Mika's rebirthday party!" Lizzie said, clapping her hands together with a loud wet sound that made Carol wince. She looked down at Mika's immobile form and began to hum "Happy birthday to you."

Tyreese made an odd strangled noise and grabbed Judith from the blanket before Lizzie turned back to them. Tyreese gave the Walker a wary look, but he gave Lizzie an even warier one.

Another Walker emerged from the forest. "Lizzie," Carol asked, her voice smooth and soothing. "How many… " she paused, unsure what to say, before glossing over the word and continuing, "did you invite to this party and how do they know to come here?"

Lizzie looked at Carol and shrugged. "Well, I found a group of them yesterday and I used some mice and mousetraps to lead them here." She beamed at Carol. "It's not a party without people, right?"

Carol bit back her remonstration that Walkers are _not_ people. Instead, she made eye contact with Tyreese and then looked toward the house. His eyes widened and he nodded slightly.

"I'm… I'm going to go make sure we have enough… uh… chairs… and… party stuff, right stuff, for our guests," he said and all but ran to the farmhouse.

Carol swallowed the dryness in her mouth away. "Honey, I think you may have invited too many. We all want to be reborn, but they'll just eat us up and we won't be able to come back. You saw them do that at the prison- remember?"

Lizzie frowned and looked up at the sky. "Oh yeah," she said softly. "I do remember that."

A sudden hissing noise made Carol's heart stop. She looked down and saw Mika blinking open her eyes. Lizzie gave Mika a huge smile, holding her hands together and looking at her as if she had just birthed her herself. A buzzing noise filled Carol's ears and her vision blurred. She rubbed her eyes and when she looked down, she found herself looking at Sophia, looking as she had before this had all started. But then Sophia's face sunk in, yellowing and decaying until. Tears leaked out, blurring her vision once more. She hastily rubbed them away and when she looked down it was Mika's face once more.

But it wasn't Mika who stared back up at her. The Walker that used to be Mika sat up, entrails falling out of the hole in her stomach and piling onto her lap. Carol bit her tongue so as not to gag.

"My turn now," Lizzie sing-songed, ignorant to Carol's near-breakdown. She held out her hand to Mika. Carol moved to stop her, but before hse could Mika made a familiar clicking noise with her teeth and launched herself at Lizzie's arm. Lizzie winced as blood sprung out from between Mika's teeth. "Ow, ow, ow. Ok, Mika, that's enough. I only need to be bit a little bit to turn."

Lizzie jerked her hand out of Mika's mouth, choking on a sob as the skin tore away. Mika began to chew what little she had gotten, blood dripping down her mouth. Lizzie wiped the tears from her face and stood up, holding her injured wrist with her other hand. She puffed out her chest to Carol, who fought down the impulse to cut Lizzie's hand off and drag her away.

Lizzie's eyes widened and she looked down to see Mika grabbing at her ankles. She kicked her off. "Mika, I'm already going to turn. You don't need to bite me anymore."

Another Walker, the first to exit the forest, came up behind her, leaned down, and bit into her neck. She shrieked and instinctively stabbed him in the head with her knife. He dropped to the ground, instantly dead for the second and final time. "I'm so sorry!" she told his corpse as she clutched her neck. "But that hurt!" she whimpered and looked down. "Nobody told me it would hurt."

Lizzie turned to look and found three more Walkers closing in on them. For the first time, uncertainty flashed in her eyes. "Carol," she said, her voice wavering. She kicked Mika off of her again and backed away towards Carol.

Instead of bumping into the softness of Carol as expected, her head bumped into something hard and familiar. She whipped around to find Carol's gun pointed at her forehead. Lizzie's eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

Carol's eyes glazed over as she pictured the possibilities. She could just leave. Leave Lizzie to the monsters she loved so much. Carol gritted her teeth. The pressure around her eyes that had built when she saw Mika's corpse threatened to overwhelm her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tyreese with all their stuff run out of the house.

Carol's hardened eyes met Lizzie's pleading ones. "Please," Lizzie said. "Don't. I won't come back."

Carol took a deep, shuddering breath- and pulled the trigger.


End file.
